What type of steel do you keep on hand?

Something that machines easy, polishes nicely, and blues great. Just a general use steel.

And what type of steel to make a firing pin.


Hal

Hal, I like 12L14, but it blues a little different color. I use 1018 for sights and sight bases. It machines fine and Duane told me it blued great. I use drill rod for firing pins.
Butch

I keep 1018 for misc. items and O1 drill rod for firing pins and anything to be hardened tempered.

Butch
Is 1018 the same as "cold rolled" steel or "hot rolled" steel?
That is about all they sell in town.

I hooked up my Phase Perfect last night and test run my mill last night, and to my surprise everything worked except the motor turned backwards. Seems to happen every time with 3 phase. I just need to swap 2 wires.

Anyway I need some steel to practice on and something to have on hand.

I'll need to make a T nut for my Aloris BX tool post for the lathe.
That should be a good first mill project.

I have to back the pickup out of the shop so a piece of flying metal does't get stuck in the side of the door if something goes amiss.
I still have to hang a mirror so I have so I have someone to chew out for mistake as I have no cat to kick and the dog growls when you get close to her.

What color does 12L14 blue up like?

Hal

Bob

Is O1 oil or air hardened?

Hal

quote:

Originally posted by Hal H:
Bob

Is O1 oil or air hardened?

Hal

oil hardened!

quote:

Is 1018 the same as "cold rolled" steel or "hot rolled" steel?
That is about all they sell in town.

1018 is a chemical mixture of steel and "cold rolled" or "Hot rolled" os a process.

1018 can be available as hot rolled or cold rolled.....tell the supplier you want 1018 steel!

To purchase cold rolled is to possibly wind up with 1018, 1008, 1117, 12L14, 4140, 8620 etc!

You really want to know what steel you have!

My mistake

Is Hot rolled or cold rolled more stable?

I was thinking that I had read somewhere that if you were machining a piece of flat one had more stress and would tend to warp when machine. But I can't remember which.

Hal

What kind of steel is the key stock you can by at the corner hardware store?

Hal,
Vapo wished that he was Thomas J. I believe that keystock is 1018. The 12L14 that I saw had a purplish cast.
Butch

I would surly want to be purchasing Steel or any other Metals from a Metals distributor ,

who knows EXACTLY which metals to sell too you !!!. I'm not purchasing corner hardware steel for

a bolt or an action . JMO !.

Hal, I didn't realize that you were building a receiver and bolt. I reread your post and still don't find it. Doc, you reckon that you misunderstood what he was asking?
Butch

Once we had a job to take down a bunch of pallet rack. The guy said we could have whatever was still on it. There was a couple of tons of tool steel. H-13, d-2, all the exotic stuff. I thought i had hit a goldmine. Die makers wouldn't touch it because there was no paper trail. They weren't going to build a $100,000 set of dies for a customer and not be able to prove the heat number, just to save $20. So Tried to use it myself for odd jobs. You'll go through $50 worth of carbide trying to make a two bit part out of H13. 1018 is nice to have around for mose things. Buy what you need when it matters so that you know what you have. Watch out for the leaded steels (12L14 and 41L40) the lead produces gases which make them problematic to weld. The lead is only there to provide a minor improvement in machinability. this improvement doesn't come into play unless you are making a bizillion of something.

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
Hal, I didn't realize that you were building a receiver and bolt. I reread your post and still don't find it. Doc, you reckon that you misunderstood what he was asking?
Butch

Diplomatic... and humorous!

Doc & Butch

No bolt or action here. Most likely I'll be making big chunks into little chips.

I just need something to practice on.

Hal

1018, 12L14, O1, D2, W1, L6

Plus a bunch of stainless I picked up from a palce I used to work. Have made tons of shop tools from stainless over the years (303 I think). Mostly 1018, especially by poundage, but also in shapes and sizes.

Also keep a little brass, bronze, and aluminum.

Oh, I have some A2 but won't be buying any more.

I'm kinda like Marc. I have a couple tons of 303 round from .500 to 5" in 12 ft. sticks. I have a lot of 416R round stock, 410, and 17-4. I have a little brass and copper. I have a lot of aluminum round and plate, mostly 6061 so it will hard anodize.
Butch

quote:

Originally posted by Hal H:
My mistake

Is Hot rolled or cold rolled more stable?

Hal

I believe that hot rolled is more stable, especially in thin pieces. On thin cold roll, if you cut the skin off one side it tends to bow. Unfortunately you have to deal with a bit of scale on hot roll.

Hal

For most projects, Cold rolled off the shelf from the local hardware or machine shop selling cutoffs will be low carbon 1018. It is available as flat, square or round stock and the surface can be torch hardened.

A36 is usually what you will get for hot rolled and it will have a scale or hard coating. Most angle iron and square/rectangle tubes will be A36. It is also available in flats, but I have not seen in in rounds.

Tool steels are not generally available in bulk at the corner store, and are more expensive and specialty product oriented. A2 is air hardened (air quenched) and O1 is quenched in oil, W1 is water or brine quenched (see a pattern?). D2 and S7 are either oil or water quenched.(correction, S7 should be air or oil, see note below from Andy (thanks)) Most drill rod and ground stock is available in these alloys.

Alloy steel is the 4130, 4140 or 4340 and comes cold rolled.

1144 is the stress proof in rounds, it is cold rolled and nice for shafts

stainless Stainless is available in multiple alloys, usually designated with a three digit number. The 300's are most common (301--304, 316, 321,347 etc) 304 is the most common, 316 is the "marine grade stainless."

If I need a small piece for something, the local machine shop has a pile of cut offs they sell by the pound . I have some salvaged shafting, but it is ??? and that makes it harder to heat treat or weld. That's fine for some applications, but if the part is important, the online suppliers will get you just what is needed. Check Online metal from Seattle or look in the back of a "Home Shop Machinist".

Some suppliers have a color code for their steel, unfortunately there are to my knowledge no standard colors. The last bunch of 12L14 rounds I bought had blue, yellow and red ends to code the size, go figure.

Roger

Roger,

Fastenal, carries A36 in round. I just bought some to turn a combo tool for my mill. A mallet with a brass face on one side, and a socket, sized for my drawbar, on the other. Saw the idea in HSM, and it's pretty darn handy! The A36 turned pretty easily on my little 12" Atlas, and polished up nicely with 320 grit.

Jeff

Thanks everyone it give me an idea of what to look for and a starting point.

Hal

Roger,

I thought S7 was an air hardening tool steel? That was the procedure we used when making cores and cavities in injection molds.

Andy B

Andy

You are right, I went from memory instead of looking it up, my bad. Here is one reference:



S-7 Tool Steel
S-7 Tool Steel
Heat treat temperature 1725-1750 F
Quench Air or Oil
Hardness Rockwell 55c-57c
Applications S7 is good for general tooling and molding applications. It possesses high toughness and shock resistance.
Disadvantages While S7 is very tough compared to other tool steels, it doesn't have hardness comparable to the other tool steels.



Jeff, thanks for that, I think there is a Fastenal store near here. I have never been in it. I see it is also available online, but of course shipping kills the cost for anything but very small amounts.

Roger,

Quite welcome. Fastenal is pretty handy, when you need something "right now" (provided it's in stock). The shipping is a deal killer for us in AK as well. Unless it will fit in a flat rate mailer, we're pretty much screwed.

Jeff

Reading this thread over I just wanted to make one point. Steels can be SAE rated or ASTM rated (I'm sure there are others also). SAE are steels used in machinery, and ASTM are steels used in structures. quality controls and standards are vastly different. Almost anything can go into ASTM steel. This is made with large percentages of scrap. You can hit some major bad spots with ASTM steel. ASTM steel is hot rolled. That isn't to say that SAE steel can't be hot rolled, it comes both ways. But, unless you bought it new and know what it is, hot rolled is a crap shoot.

I went to the local steel supplier yesterday.
They carry ASTM A-36 in the flats and C-1018 in rounds as well a LASSALLE STRESSPROOF in round and square.

The 2 1/2" stress is about $3.00 an inch.

Thanks again for all the information.

Hal

One thing to know about LaSalle 1144 or Stressproof as it called.

As a result of the Class Action lawsuit several years ago, about the Remington Shotgun barrels made prior to 1994.
I had to sign a disclamer from my supplier that the ( Stressproof ) steel I purchased, would not be used for firearm barrels.

It has about 90,000 tensile lengthwise but only 30,000 radial tensile strength.

Kimber of Oregon used it for the M82 receivers, but remember that was a 22 LR, 22 MAG, and the short lived Hornet.

I carry 12L14, 1018, 1144, 1026, 4140, 41L42, 86L20, 1050, 1065, 1075, 1095, O-1, O-6, W-1, steel in my rack for our production parts, and or tooling. It all depends on what you are making and how it needs to be heat treated.

James Wisner
Custom Metalsmith

butchlambert
one of us

Posted 09 March 2009 00:37 Hide Post
Hal, I didn't realize that you were building a receiver and bolt. I reread your post and still don't find it. Doc, you reckon that you misunderstood what he was asking?
Butch

Posts: 2276 | Location: Poetry, Texas | Registered: 28 November 2004

Absolutely Butch anything is possible especially as of late .

I made a very POOR attempt at cautioning against purchasing metals used for Firearms or any other Major

projects , from the local hardware stores . Chinese junk is the norm for those places and I don't trust

anything hodgepodged in a backroom kettle to suffice for real steel .

Toys and food as well as major appliances comes to mind .

KNOW what type of METAL your purchasing was my point . You were correct I didn't read Bolt or Receiver

either . Just my Pizz poor attempt to inform . Doc .

Doc

Not a problem. Better safe than sorry.

Thanks everyone for the replies and information.

Hal

Doc, I wasn't bothered by your post. I understand where you are coming from.
Butch